Bus Driver Jim has been an eclectic computer programmer and photographer since the early seventies. A recent twenty year stint in the transportation industry has earned him the handle and this blog is a documentary of his life and travels.

It’s funny how one can have a debilitating disease and yet be in the best shape of their lives. I think my body literally slaps modern medical crap up side it’s collective bullshit head. I have Parkinson’s. It runs strong in my family on my dad’s side and my brother is suffering from it full on.

A few years back I felt it coming on in weird ways but my diet and exercise program has pushed it back to only one symptom, I can feel it rushing through my body. It’s like a freight train pounding through my blood vessels and in the quiet of night as I lie in bed, it’s really loud.

I’ve come to embrace it as a form of energy, as opposed to a disease. It no longer worries me, it just pushes me forward now…

Many years ago, late one night, I was sitting in a rundown one room apartment in Renton, WA, writing some C++ code. It was my first C program (I usually programmed in Assembly or RPG on the minis), and I was pretty stoned and getting down on it. It was an astrology app that a Bay Area friend of mine commissioned me to write for a few bucks. I had a crushed ankle from a fall and money was scarce, so I took it.

It was a pretty cool app, using all of the tricks of the astrology trade to come up with a series of numbers based on your name and birthdate. The numbers could then be compared to a database of famous people and you could see who comes close to yours. My birth name is Leigh James Riza so that’s what I plugged in and when I scrolled the screen down to see who was close, I literally fell out of my chair when I saw the results.

I’ve always had an affinity for Vincent Van Gogh and I had read everything about him I could get my hands on. I related to him as the tortured artist who was never recognized for his work. I still relate to that…

So, my mind was blown. I ran across this printout the other day and I’ve named it Carma as a union of Coincidence and Karma.

My sister found my grandmothers old crocheted afghan and asked me if I’d like to have it. Her old blanket occupies a proud spot on the top of the bed in the back of my truck, so I told her absolutely yes!

It’s in perfect shape and I recall it from when I was a kid, which makes it really old.